


For Your Eyes Only

by sue_dreams (raegan_1)



Category: Smallville
Genre: AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-08
Updated: 2009-12-08
Packaged: 2017-12-04 14:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/711639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raegan_1/pseuds/sue_dreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>X-ray vision would be a cooler power, if its use didn't mean Clark was invading everyone's privacy. Lex was different, of course.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Your Eyes Only

**Author's Note:**

> AU. Assume this is somewhere in season 2 and it would therefore diverge from all later canon.

  
[](http://sue-dreams.livejournal.com/8317.html#cutid1)   
  


  
Clark used all of his abilities to some extent or another. Once he'd learned how to control them, adapting them was relatively simple. Speed to outrun the bus and simplify his chores, strength for doing two-or-more-person tasks alone. Heat vision was... well, it was new enough that he hadn't found summer-time use for it, though it was handy in winter.

X-ray vision, though, had left him conflicted for weeks. It's only use, really was to see into places people didn't want you looking. Every use was an invasion of privacy.

Most people. Lex, of course, wasn't most people.

"I think I cracked a rib," Lex announced one evening, after being thrown into several walls by one of the meteor-affected townsfolk. His tone was slightly pained and he winced as he pressed a hand against his side.

Worried, Clark focused his eyes toward his torso. He went layer by layer, because what if there was a cut or a bruise instead of a crack? Or that's what he intended to do, but he didn't actually make it past Lex's skin.

Scrawled in purple marker, the word "PERVERT!" accused Clark of... exactly what he was doing. He winced and pulled back, catching what he thought might have been a smirk as Lex spun away.

"It could just be a bruise, I suppose," Lex continued nonchalantly.

The next time, Lex didn't say anything, but his hand scratched continuously at his stomach through his shirt. The frown he wore when he finally, discretely, rucked up the shirt to scratch directly at skin decided it for Clark.

He looked. The writing was smaller, though still in purple. "You're not as subtle as you think you are," was the message. It's meaning was disturbingly clear.

More followed, to the point where Clark started looking without cause because there almost always seemed to be something written somewhere on Lex's body. Chest, arm, shoulder, his lower back, his thigh. Clark blushed and read, and said nothing.

Until, "Give it to me, Big Boy," appeared in a neat line above his navel. The clues had been there before, but that was... well. That was a request Clark could fulfill.

Lex seemed surprised by Clark jumping him, but he went with it, mouth opening, hands gripping and pulling him closer. Clark's shirt went quickly, but then his plans to get Lex similar bare-chested ended when Lex applied his mouth to neck and chest.

Clark was reminded of his goal when Lex reached for his belt, and he pushed the older man away and started working at the buttons, wanting to see the words up close and personal. Lex let himself be stripped, but then he froze as Clark ran his fingers over the words.

"It's-" his voice was rough and he cut off on a twitch as Clark followed the letters with fingers and then tongue. "Oh, god, Clark."

Clark pulled back and grinned up at him. "It's what?" He pulled at Lex's belt with a slow motion, enjoying the way Lex watched him.

"A reminder," Lex finally answered. "I was trying to be good, Clark."

Clark stilled. "You were what?"

Lex groaned and leaned his head back. His hand covered one of Clark's, just resting there. Permission for the pause, maybe. "I was trying to be good. You're so young and you're my best friend. I just needed something to remind me of my good intentions."

Realization brought with it mortification. Clark hesitantly touched the word 'me' in the current missive, knowing that his face was burning. "And this?"

Lex's laugh was a little wild. "I didn't say it was working." Finally, he pulled Clark's hands away, pushed his body away, and then tugged Clark up so they were on relatively equal standing again. "I'm sorry, Clark."

"For what?" Clark asked. "I'm the one who, uh, instigated this."

Lex blinked and conceded, somewhat. "Well, yes. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for 'this', however."

Clark said nothing. He brushed his knuckles over the words, pleased by the way Lex's muscles shifted, jumped, at his touch. He'd been worried, when he first thought Lex knew some, if not all, his secrets, but over time, the relief had been greater. And the words... it had been like a game, a not-so-subtle tease. One that really only existed of Lex knew.

Which he didn't. The thought made Clark jerk his hand away and he backed up a step and a half.

"You seem to be over it," Lex said impassively. He straightened from the desk, away from Clark, and started to button his shirt.

Except Clark wasn't. The sight of Lex dressing himself, the lack of emotion on his face as he stood partly turned away, set up an ache in Clark. For those too-brief moments, there'd been a resonance between them, a connection created by honesty. And there was no way to regain that, no way to explain, without either lying or being honest.

Clark was very tired of the first option and anxious about the second. Anxious, but not frightened, he realized. He focused in on the words for a second more, then went back over previous 'reminders.' Despite writing for himself, Clark was pretty sure he himself was the 'you' in all of Lex's notes.

Of all the smooth ways to express himself, Clark choose what was perhaps not the most straight-forward. "I'm not." Lex tilted his head and looked at him curiously. He didn't say anything, either understanding that Clark had something more to say or trying to encourage him to continue. "Over it."

A slight widening of the eyes as surprise overwhelms the facade of calm. "Excuse me."

"It's not... a Smallville weirdness or a sudden urge. I thought-" He thought he'd been invited by someone who _knew_ him. Someone he wanted to know him. But if he told Lex anything, he'd have to tell him everything. Half-truths would be as bad as whole lies. "It's me."

Lex put his hands in his pockets, shirt unbuttoned and still untucked. "It's okay, Clark."

"It's not!" The outburst had Lex rocking back on his heels in surprise. Clark tried to calm himself and the conflict within, but it refused to be tamed. "I saw it. Them. All the words, Lex. I thought you knew I could see them."

The silence that followed his confession was heavy. He expected Lex to break it with questions, a request for more information, anything. He wasn't expecting for Lex to move with smooth swiftness back into his space. The hands fisted in Clark's hair weren't gentle and neither were the lips pressed to his mouth.

It was like a switch had been flipped, starting them over. Redo. When Lex began biting marks down the side of Clark's neck, he tried to finish what he'd started. Confession-wise. "I can-" was as far as he got before Lex kissed him again, hard.

"One or the other, Clark." The intensity of his gaze, the harshness of his voice, was surprising. "You can give me yourself or your secrets, but not both." He pulled Clark's head down and spoke directly into his ear. "If you give me everything, I will never let you go."

Lex said it like a threat, but Clark shuddered as desire coursed ever more strongly through him. He pressed his cheek to Lex's. "Please."

And much like their first run at making out, Lex went still. "Please what?"

Clark touched the part of the shirt that covered 'Give it to me, Big Boy' and trailed his fingers up over soft silk to where 'You're my best friend,' had been three days ago. "Everything."

Now with [comment!fic on LiveJournal by](http://sue-dreams.livejournal.com/8317.html?thread=52093#t52093) [](http://nonotthatone.livejournal.com/profile)[**nonotthatone**](http://nonotthatone.livejournal.com/)

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be comment!fic for [](http://nonotthatone.livejournal.com/profile)[**nonotthatone**](http://nonotthatone.livejournal.com/) in response to her comment to one of my [](http://sv100.livejournal.com/profile)[**sv100**](http://sv100.livejournal.com/) [drabbles](http://community.livejournal.com/sv100/46073.html#cutid3) (scroll up after you click the link to see the header). Also, similarities to other things I've written recently (namely "Getting it Right") is somewhat intentional. I'm just in a mood.


End file.
